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by HPbooks4life



Category: The Ever Afters Series - Shelby Bach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:53:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23314930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HPbooks4life/pseuds/HPbooks4life
Summary: A short extension of the ending of Of Enemies and Endings.
Relationships: Rory Landon/Chase Turnleaf
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	Home

Chase and I walked together, hand in hand, toward the party by the Tree of Hope. Bree was still holding Dani tightly, muttering about crazy sorceresses. Dad was sitting beside her, laughing at something Kyle had said. Lena snapped her fingers, and more flowers bloomed, brightening the Tree. It was beautiful. 

My mom spotted us. “There she is!” she said, smiling. She held up the cake. “Cake time!”

Lena caught my eye, and she, Chase, and I shared a look and a barely contained smile.

“Sure, mom,” I said.

Chase and I sat on the ground near Lena while my mom cut the cake, watching the reenactment happening in front of us. Chatty laughed loudly as Paul made a particularly outrageous flourish with his imaginary sword, leaning against a  _ very _ happy Ben. Vicky snorted into her cup of punch, looking highly amused.

Lena turned to us with an enormous smile. “I can do all kinds of things!” she said, her eyes bright with excitement. “This is incredible!”

Lady Aspenwind smiled. “You’re a very gifted sorceress. No one’s ever been able to replicate Fey magic so well before, and certainly not so quickly. You’ll go far, I’m sure of it.”

Chase grinned. “Like she needs magic for that.” 

Lena, if possible, smiled even wider.

Mom made her way over to us and handed me a slice of cake. “Birthday girl first!” she said, grinning at me. I smiled back and took it, resolving to hide it somewhere later. “Thanks, mom.”

She and Amy continued passing out slices of cake, and they looked… content. It was a nice thing to see, considering how tense they’d been these last few months.

Chase slung an arm around my shoulders as I set the plate down, and even though I could feel the blush on my face, for once, I didn’t care. For the first time in a long time, I was  _ happy _ . Not scared. Not angry. Just happy. So happy I thought my heart would burst.

I leaned into Chase, and he looked  _ very _ pleased with himself. His mother raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. I caught Lena’s eye, and she wiggled her eyebrows in an uncharacteristically goofy expression. I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t help grinning.

As we sat there, watching the show and trying to look like we were eating the cake without actually eating it, I thought about what Rapunzel had once said to me. That having an Unwritten Tale was like life. You didn’t know what was coming. You just did your best, and hoped things turned out okay. Then I thought about Chase’s dream. How he hadn’t had a vision of his Tale, but of his life, instead. Maybe Rapunzel was right. Maybe getting  _ any _ Tale was just another chapter in the Tale of life.

I grinned at the corniness of that, and Chase noticed. He grinned back. “What?”

I shook my head. “Just… This. Right here. This is everything I’ve ever wanted.”

He smiled brilliantly at me, the boy with the bright green eyes and sarcastic smile, with the magical wings and the big heart that he tried so hard to hide.

Lena laughed loudly at something the reenactors had done, and I looked over at her. Her long braids moving gently in the wind, the sunlight glinting off of her golden hands. The hands that she’d been so upset about. But maybe they were a blessing in disguise. 

I smiled. How very Rapunzel that would be.

I looked around the courtyard. At the friends and family that surrounded me, celebrating so much more than my birthday. Celebrating life, and love, and all of the things that we’d get to experience, because we’d made it. We were alive. We’d been through so much. Would still go through more. But something told me that in the end, we’d be alright. Things would work themselves out.

This was where I belonged. Where I’d always been headed. Where I’d always return.

This was home.


End file.
